Brown gets new role under Transport Act

238322 Jan 2009UK

Philip Brown to become first statutory senior traffic commissioner for England and Wales.

Philip Brown will be the first statutory senior traffic commissioner for England and Wales to be appointed under new powers in the Local Transport Act 2008. He will be formally appointed and take up his new role when the powers come into force this spring. Brown is currently traffic commissioner for the South Eastern and Metropolitan traffic area and has also been the senior traffic commissioner since March 2003.

At present the senior traffic commissioner is an administrative appointment with no additional powers. The Local Transport Act 2008 changes this by giving the post-holder new responsibilities to determine how the traffic commissioners perform their statutory functions. The Act also provides new powers for the transport secretary to issue guidance to the senior traffic commissioner on the exercise of any of his functions. The Department for Transport plans to undertake a full consultation exercise on draft guidance in the early part of this year.